Barracuda XT, Barracuda, Barracuda Green, DiamondMax and other desktop SATA and IDE drives

[saman0suke]

I was not able to edit my current post, so I write another one:

I've read that some users on another forum who tested the "freezing" method, made it work, and recommended to put the drive into an external enclosure and the enclosure into the freezer and use it to retrieve data from the freezer itself, what do you think? I will try the freezing method, looks like it can work at least for 20 - 30 minutes, which will be enough, any suggestion? I have the enclosure, I have the Hard drive, I just don't feel sure about turning on the enclosure inside of the freezer (my enclosure needs electric power) thanks!!

[Cantbecanit]

Noo Nooo, no enclosures, you need it to seal, so thick plastic bag and sealed, you want temperature not moisture, when you run it you want it as cool as possible for as long as possible, this means no cases, direct connection and ideally a fan blowing full pelt over it, hth.

[saman0suke]

Ok, I let it since yesterday at night in the freezer inside of a plastic sealed bag, I will leave it there until tomorrow I guess, and I will try friday night, is that ok? by the way, I was thinking on having the computer turned on and logged in, with an enclosure ready just to put the hard drive without closing the enclosure, I know there're a SATA to USB cable on the market, but the enclosure is already at home, so, do you think it's a good idea? thanks!

[Cantbecanit]

If you have a spare power connector on the psu use that, boot without the sata lead connected to the drive, but have it connected to the the motherboard, once Windows is loaded plug the sata lead into the drive to hotswap it, then recover like mad.

Good luck.

[saman0suke]

Just to clarify, what you recommend to me is to connect the damaged hard drive to only the power connector of the motherboard, and the data cable disconnected, then with the computer turned on, and ready, connect the data cable to the hard drive and then start to get the files, some questions:

Is it safe to connect the hard drive in this way?
Is it better to use it this way instead of using an enclosure?

Thanks in advanced, I will try tonight, so I wanna make sure I'm doing everything ok!!

EDIT: Reading your post again, I guess you mean something different, having both, power and data cables connected to the motherboard, not to the hard drive, start the computer, log in, and then connect BOTH to the hard drive, is this correct? or the first statement? thanks!

[Cantbecanit]

Sorry I was out at work, yes it's route two you need, you can put the power lead on the drive before booting, just leave the sata one off at the drive end, that way it won't stop the PC booting, once loaded up put the sata lead on and hopefully it should hotplug straight in.

[saman0suke]

Ok, the results were bad, I left the HD for 2 days on the freezer, then took it out, connected just the power cord, and after booting up the pc on Ubuntu, connected SATA cable...nothing happened

Tried to put the HD on an enclosure and booting on Windows.....just able to see the partitions but it asked to format them before, same thing happened before, so, it's not something to be happy with

Took the HD and put it another hour in the freezer, took it out, now tried to connect the HD to the motherboard using Windows, nothing happened, not even recognized......same thing on Ubuntu, I just quit trying with freezing the device....at this point, and after freezing it, can I still try some other methods? I mean, it does not matter that I froze it, It's still working right, I can still try something else, or the freezing technique kills any possibility after trying? because I still wanna try getting an identical HD and replace logic board, like my last option, any help? please, I don't want to buy another HD if I killed this one after freezing it, I guess I can still try, but you tell me please thanks!!

[Cantbecanit]

tbh the freezer trick is a sorta last resort, the only thing left now is to look into a pcb transplant, and that will only work if there's no damage to the inner drive workings already there.

I've just had a read back and we haven't looked at it being a brick or LBA0 faulty, what does the label on the drive say FW wise, look for the code that starts MX.

[saman0suke]

I attached a screenshot of all the info in the HD.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/823/20110815071052624.jpg/

As you can see, the Firmware is MX15, I know there's an upgrade for this hard drive, but I guess I will not be able to apply to it since this is damaged; by the way, I know that LBA0 faulty is only when the hard drive is not being recognized by BIOS right? because is being recognized last time I checked....I will try to get another hard drive and try PCB replacement, I have nothing to lose anyway, any other ideas are welcome, THANKS A LOT for all your help

[Cantbecanit]

If you can see it in the bios flash it to MX1a asap

Next can you slave it to another drive and see what HD Sentinal says about it's condition, right now I'm thinking all you have is a delayed write failure which can be fixed simply, you must flash it if possible though or it will shut you out completely.